CHAPTER XV. THE WICKENBURG MASSACRE.

Stagecoach Attacked by Party of Mounted
Men, Five Passengers Killed, Two
Wounded—Difference of Opinion as to
Whether Outrage Committed by Indians
or Mexicans—Verdict of Coroner's
Jury—Description of Killed and
Wounded—C. B. Genung's Belief and
Statement—Mike Burn's Ignorance of
Occurrence.

What is known as the Loring Massacre occurred
on the 5th of November, 1871. On account
of the prominence of some of the victims,
it was commented upon very extensively, not
only in Arizona and California, but throughout
the East.

The Wickenburg correspondent of the “Journal-Miner”
gives the following account of the
massacre, the communication being printed in
that paper on November 11th, 1871:

‘‘

“At a point about nine miles from Wickenburg
a party of mounted men, either Indians or
Mexicans disguised after the fashion of Apache
warriors, rushed down upon the stage as it was
passing through a canyon, and fired a volley into
the passengers, killing all but two persons, and
slightly wounding these. The wounded, Mr.
Kruger and Miss Sheppard, not being disabled,
immediately sprang from the stage and started
together towards Culling's Station, while one detachment

[page 290]

of the bloodthirsty demons surrounded
the stage, and the other went in pursuit of the
fugitives, and kept up a desultory fire, which, being
all mounted, was unsteady, so that only a
slight wound was received by Miss Sheppard,
and neither sustained further injury than the
wounds inflicted by the first fire. The pursuit
was kept up for a distance of nearly half a mile,
the pursuers being kept at bay by Kruger, who
still retained his revolver and fired upon them
whenever they came too near, causing them to
scatter and retreat, but only to rally again to the
pursuit until finally they withdrew and joined
their fellows. The fugitives continued on their
way toward Culling's Well Station until they
hailed the eastern bound mail a few miles from
that station. Here they were picked up by the
driver, who retraced his steps to the station, from
which point information of the calamity was sent
to Wickenburg via the Vulture Mine, the bearer
fearing to proceed by the direct route. The dispatch
reached Wickenburg about midnight,
when two parties of citizens started for the
scene; one of them to bring in the dead bodies,
and the other, under command of George Munroe,
to take the trail of the murderers. Upon
reaching the stage a most horrible picture was
presented to their sight. Five men, Messrs. Loring,
Shoholm, Lanz, Hamel, and Salmon, who,
eighteen hours previous left Wickenburg full of
life and hope in the happy anticipation of soon
again greeting their friends after a prolonged
absence, lay side by side rigid in death and
drenched in blood; the unavenged acts of a murder
as dark and damnable as ever stained the

[page 291]

hands of an assassin. The mystery which surrounds
the identity of the murder exists in the
disposition of the mail and baggage. One mail
sack was cut open and its contents scattered over
the ground, the other was left untouched. The
baggage of the passengers was broken open, and
while articles of little value were carried away,
large sums of money and other valuables remained.
All this would suggest the work of ignorant
savages, but as neither the ammunition nor
animals had been removed, some are of the opinion
that the outrage was perpetrated by a band
of Mexican bandits from Sonora. Mr. Kruger,
who has really had the best opportunity of deciding
this question, states positively that they
were Indians, but at all events the next mail may
bring reports which will place the guilt of this
terrible crime where it properly belongs, when
we hope it will not be left to the local authorities
to redress the wrong or avenge an outrage
against the Government and their people at
large.”
’’

The passengers on this coach when leaving
Wickenburg, were in high spirits, anticipating
no danger whatever along the route. Their arms
were stored beneath the cushions of the seats for
convenience and safety. All were in high glee,
anticipating soon a reunion with their friends
and families. Miss Sheppard and Mr. Kruger,
and three others sat on the inside of the coach.
Young Loring rode on the outside in company
with the driver. The first notification of danger
was at a point about nine miles from Wickenburg
when they were startled by the voice of
the driver, calling out: “Apaches! Apaches!!”

[page 292]

Scarcely was the alarm given when a volley was
discharged from the rifles of the savages into the
stage coach, succeeded almost instantly by a second
volley. The driver and two passengers were
killed outright at the first fire, and the remaining
four passengers, with one exception, were
wounded. ‘‘“At that time,”’’ says J. M. Barney,
‘‘“the survivors were Miss Sheppard and Messrs.
Hamel, Kruger and Loring. The last named had
thus far escaped uninjured. As the Indians
were rushing upon the stage, after firing the first
volley, Miss Sheppard and Mr. Kruger sprang
to the ground at the side opposite to that from
which their assailants were approaching, and escaped
with their lives. Unfortunately for
Messrs. Loring and Hamel, in the excitement of
the moment, they lost all presence of mind and
jumped from the stage at the side occupied by
the Indians.’’
‘‘

“The former, being unarmed, could offer no
resistance, and so endeavored to escape by flight.
This effort, however, was hopeless. He soon
found himself in the center of a group of savages,
and there fell, pierced by two bullets and dispatched
by a lance thrust in the breast. Mr.
Hamel was killed at about the same instant, and
those who were best acquainted with the Indian
customs believed that he must have fought
bravely for his life, as he was the only member of
the party who was scalped—it having been customary
among the savages to disfigure in such a
manner only the bodies of those who fell while
fighting courageously to defend their lives.

“The trailing party (under George Munroe)
then returned to Wickenburg, where Captain

[page 293]

Meinholdt and some soldiers were met. Some of
the citizens then joined Captain Meinholdt's
party, and, returning to the scene of the attack,
again picked up the trail of the murderers and
followed it until both citizens and soldiers became
thoroughly satisfied that the authors of the
deed had gone on to the Camp Date Creek Reservation.

“It was apparent to the relief party that while
awaiting the approach of the stage coach, the
savages had been secreted near the roadside, behind
piles of grass and shrubbery, which they
had collected and arranged in a manner not to
attract attention, placing the bundles in an upright
position to give them the appearance of
clumps of shrubbery produced by the natural
process of growth. These hiding places extended
parallel to the road for some distance and,
it was evident that, when the stage had reached a
point about the middle of the ambush line, it was
raked by the fire of the assassins in three directions—in
front, in rear, and directly opposite the
side.

“At a late hour on Monday night, the bodies of
the victims were brought into Wickenburg, and,
on the following day, the inquest was held, the
following being a copy of the verdict rendered:

“‘We, the undersigned, summoned as a jury
to hold an inquest on the bodies of the following
named persons, found murdered in the stage
coach, about six miles from the town of Wickenburg,
on the La Pas road, on the morning of the
5th of November, 1871, from all the evidence obtained
from the two surviving passengers, do find
that C. S. Adams John Lanz, Fred W. Loring,

[page 294]

Fred W. Shoholm, W. G. Salmon and P. M.
Hamel, (found scalped), came to their death by
gunshot wounds, received at the hands of Indians
trailed towards the Date Creek Reservation.

“The survivors, Kruger and Miss Sheppard,
were confident that the murderers were Apache-Mohaves
from the Camp Date Creek Reservation.
They had on the blue pants worn by the
Reservation Indians and had the gait, appearance
and bearing of Apaches during the whole
time they were under observation. In addition to
this, Captain Meinholdt, of the 3d Cavalry, who
had been detailed to find out, if possible, who
they were, followed the tracks in the direction of
Camp Date Creek. The footprints were round
toed, after the manner of the Apaches. On the
trail a reservation hunting bag was picked up,
and a pack of cards, with the corners cut off, Such
as were used by the Apache-Mohaves. He declared
in his report to his superior that it was his
firm conviction that the murderers were Camp
Date Creek Apaches. Furthermore, subsequent
to the committal of the murder, two of the Reservation
Indians died of gunshot wounds, but
whites were not permitted to see them.

“The suspicion that had at first been expressed
by a few—that the crime might have been committed
by Mexican bandits—furnished sufficient
grounds for the starting of such a rumor.
Thereupon, interested, so-called friends of the

[page 295]

Indians, here and elsewhere, seized upon this
flaw in some people's judgment for the purpose
of making capital out of it, but a number of well-known
Wickenburg citizens, who had examined
and buried the bodies, as well as followed the
trail of the murderers, published over their signatures
a letter containing the best of proofs
and reasons for asserting that Indians had committed
the deed. The letter was as follows:
‘‘

“‘Wickenburg, November 12th, 1871.

“‘Editor of the ‘Miner’: In looking over the
last issue of your paper, Nov. 11th, and a report
giving details concerning the late tragedy which
occurred near our place, we wish to correct one
error—the murderers were not mounted on
horses, but were all on foot, and wearing the
Apache mocassins, leaving on their trail many
Indian articles, (among others, bone dust used
by the Indians as a medicine), which were
brought in by George Munroe. As the affair is a
serious one and unprecedentedly bold, our citizens,
wishing to have the blame attached to none
but the guilty ones, have spared no trouble or expense
in thoroughly satisfying themselves as to
the identity of the murderers.

“‘As soon in the morning as it became light
enough to see a footprint, a party of our citizens
was on the spot, and took the trail. Judging
from the indications, after killing the passengers,
something scared the Indians, causing them
to leave in hot haste, scattering in different directions.
After following up their different
trails a distance of four or five miles, they all
united, forming one large trail and leading
toward the Date Creek Reservation. The trail

[page 296]

showed them to be a large party of Indians, some
forty or fifty in number. It was useless for the
few citizens then on the trail to follow them farther,
the Indians having some twenty hours the
start.

“‘They returned to Wickenburg, where they
met Captain Meinholdt, with a detachment of
troops from Camp Date Creek, and orders to use
all efforts to find out who the murderers were.
Thereupon Mr. Munroe and Mr. Frink immediately
returned with Captain Meinholdt and his
command, again took up the trail, and followed it
until citizens and soldiers were all thoroughly
satisfied that the perpetrators of the horrible
deed were Indians.

“‘We, being of the scouting party, subscribe
to the above as being a true report, having been
the first upon the ground after the massacre and
of the last to leave the trail.

“The public mind, however, continued to be
divided, certain interests harping upon the matter
until they succeeded in schooling a portion of
the Eastern public into the belief that white Arizonans
had committed the crime for the sake of
plundering the passengers and to make sure of
the continuance of the war with the Apaches.
These were, of course, base slanders and through
the untiring efforts of General Crook were later
disproved and the guilt fastened—beyond any
reasonable doubt—upon Apache-Mohave Indians.

[page 297]

“The best known and most prominent victim
of this deplorable tragedy was Fred W. Loring,
who was twenty-two years of age and a native of
Boston, Massachusetts. He had graduated from
Harvard in 1870, and immediately engaged in
the business of journalism in his native city.
Early in 1871 he had joined the ‘Wheeler Expedition,’
which he accompanied throughout all its
rambles, finally reaching Prescott on his way
home. Although a boy in years, Mr. Loring was
a mature man in mind, whose name had already
become familiar throughout the nation as an author
and ‘contributor’ of rare merit. His untimely
death created a great sensation in the
East and at once the press of New York and
New England wheeled into line, and concluded
that ‘the Apache must be treated with less Bible,
and more sword.’

“Messrs. Hamel and Salmon were likewise
members of the ‘Wheeler Expedition.’ Both
gentlemen were residents of San Francisco,
where the latter left a wife and two small children
who were dependent upon his efforts for
support.

“Mr. Shoholm was on his way to his home in
Philadelphia after an absence of many years,
part of which time he had been a member of the
firm of Jewell & Co., of Prescott.

“C. S. Adams had a wife and three small children
in San Francisco and was on his way to
join them when overtaken by death. For ten
months preceding his departure from Prescott,
he had been in charge of the flour depot of
W. Bichard & Co., at that place.

[page 298]

“John Lanz, the driver, who was better known
as ‘Dutch John,’ came from San Bernardino,
California, about four weeks before his death,
and had obtained a situation as driver on the
Ehrenberg-Wickenburg stage, the fatal trip being
his second one over the route, and the first
one from the Wickenburg end of the line.

“Miss Sheppard, who had been quite seriously
wounded in the attack, was later taken to Camp
Date Creek for medical attention, going from
there to Southern California in company with
Mr. Kruger. Not many years later Kruger reported
her death in that State from the effects of
the wounds she had received, which left him as
the last survivor of the most atrocious killing of
whites by savages in Arizona.”

’’
’’

Miss Sheppard was a member of the demimonde,
a beautiful woman who dressed in
the height of extreme fashion; adventurous, as
is fully demonstrated by her being in Arizona at
this time, and said to be quite fascinating, whose
charms found a ready market. She was kind
and generous, dividing with the unfortunate,
nursing the sick with motherly care; she had a
warm place in the hearts of her male acquaintances.

At first, as before stated, this was supposed to
have been the work of Mexicans, disguised as Indians.
C. B. Genung, to the day of his death,
believed that Mexicans committed this atrocity,
and makes the following statement in regard to
it:

‘‘

“In the fall of 1871 a man named J. M. Bryan,
commonly called ‘Crete’ by his acquaintances,
had the contract to haul government freight

[page 299]

from Ehrenberg, on the Colorado River, to Ft.
Whipple, Camps Wood, Verde, Apache, and Ft.
McDowell. His business called him to different
posts and he generally travelled by stage from
one post to another. When there was no stage
route he generally used a saddle horse or mule, of
which he had several good ones. Bryan had an
acquaintance with whom he generally took his
meals when in Wickenburg, which was a central
point for his teams. One day Donna Tomase, as
the woman was called, (she was a California
Spaniard. Her right name was Mrs. Bouns),
called Bryan into her house, and told him not to
ride in the Wickenburg and Ehrenberg stage any
more. When questioned she told him that there
was a plan laid to rob the stage; that she had
overheard some Mexicans talking in a brush
shack behind a saloon nearby where she lived,
and cautioned him again about going by stage.
He took the advice and did his travelling in the
saddle from that on. It was not long before the
woman's story was confirmed. The stage left
Prescott at night on account of Indians, arriving
at Wickenburg before daylight on the following
morning. * * * At a point about
nine miles from Wickenburg toward Ehrenberg,
the road crossed a small sandwash which had
scrub oak brush growing on either side. In this
wash, hidden by the banks and brush, lay the
Mexicans. When the stage was well into the
wash, the horses were stopped and the stage
riddled with bullets. * * *

“Of course this was supposed by most people
to be the work of the Indians, quite a number of
whom were at that time at Camp Date Creek

[page 300]

about twenty-five miles northwest of Wickenburg.
The Mexicans had worn moccasins and
scalped Adams in order to mislead the public.
At the time I was working from twenty-five to
thirty of the Date Creek Indians, gathering my
crop of corn, beans and potatoes on my ranch in
Peeples Valley, twenty-seven miles north of
Wickenburg, and I had some men among them
that I knew I could trust. As soon as I heard
the news I sent two Indians across to Date Creek
to learn if these Indians knew anything about
the matter. They returned the same day and
assured me their people knew nothing about the
massacre, but that it must be Tonto Apaches
from the eastern country.

“In a very few days Bryan came by my place,
on his way from Wickenburg to Prescott, and
told me the story. Among this band of fifteen
Mexicans was one who Mrs. Bouns was slightly
acquainted with, and whom she called Parenta;
his name being the same as her family name.
She got him into her house, filled him up with
wine and he told her the whole story; how these
men had all stayed at a house out on the road a
little west of the town the night before the massacre,
and went out to the place before daybreak.
The place had been picked out some days before.
This young Mexican claimed that he was sick
that night and did not accompany the crowd that
did the work, but told of Adams shooting one of
the party; that they had taken the wounded man
to the Agua Caliente springs on the Gila River to
get well. The officers went from Phoenix and
got the fellow with the hole in his shoulder,
brought him to Phoenix, and he was killed in

[page 301]

the jail by a man who still lives in Phoenix.
John Burger killed one of them in a corral at
the lower station on the Agua Fria near where
the S. F. P. & P. R. crosses that stream. The
ringleader, a redheaded native of Gibraltar,
named Joaquin Barbe, with another of the band,
got on the warpath and run amuck in Phoenix,
and Joe Fye and Milt Ward, deputy sheriffs,
chased them out of town and killed both of them,
and they all got what was coming to them, but
one. He got wise and left the country. Bryan
was very careful who he told the story to, and it
was passed among the right men to attend to
such matters. The scalping of Adams was all
right to fool a tenderfoot, but we oldtimers knew
that Apaches never scalped, although they frequently
mutilated otherwise.”
’’

If this massacre had been committed by Indians,
it is strange that Mike Burns knows nothing
of it, because he has been collecting Indian
history and Indian stories, and recording them
carefully, no matter whether to the credit of his
race or not, and if the Indians had been the culprits,
some of the Indians, the Yavapais or
Apache-Mohaves, with whom he has been associated
since his early youth and manhood, would
certainly have given him an account of it. On
the contrary he professes to know nothing of this
massacre, and never heard of any attempt to assassinate
General Crook, although he says this
might have happened and he never know of it;
so I give all the evidence tending to show that it
was committed by the Indians, and also the evidence
of Mr. Genung going to show that it was
committed by Mexicans. It will always remain

[page 302]

a mystery as to who were really the murderers.
General Crook, as we shall see, at first believed
that it was committed by the Indians, and, according
to Captain Bourke, spent a long time in
ferreting out the perpetrators, but from the fact
that a month later, or thereabouts, he employed
these same Indians, whom he tried to capture or
kill at Date Creek, as scouts to run down the
renegade Apaches, it would seem that he might
have changed his mind, although there is no record
of that extant.